Several Aldi stores have opened up in our area and they have some great deals. Milk is the biggest $2.69 a gallon which is almost a dollar saving. They have great prices on produce, here they get new produce on Thursday so try to buy it then. Here they have a lot of Fit & Active products and they are good. Everything I've tried has been good.
I don't throw any left over food away. I keep containers in my freezer, if I have a leftover piece of chicken, pork, etc., I chop it up and put it in the approprate container. When it's full, I make something that calls for cooked meat, etc. If I have a banana going bad, I mash it and put it in a container. Then make banana bread, etc. Same with vegetables for soup.
I make a weeks menu using things I have on hand in the freezer. Then go through the sale flyers and buy meat, etc that is on sale then use those items for next weeks menu.

Well, I'm down to one roll of paper towels every three weeks! Gonna try and stretch it for a month next time around!

The best ways I have found to save money is make more of my own stuff.... and that goes for just about anything. From food to cleaners. Watching some of the commercials on TV.. it is amazing the stuff they try to make you think you need!

I think there are loads of ways a person can save money, but it depends on what they're already doing. You can cut most meat out for an easy start since you can get much better value from most vegetables. You can also avoid wasting gas/electricity by only heating the water that you need (e.g. a bit more than the vegetables will absorb or, just enough to cover them with a little left over for losses by evaporation). This forum is awash with resource-uneconomic recipes and ideas; there are too many to mention. I think "common sense" would be the best way to sum up all my ideas! Some people might need to lower their standards.

__________________
We don't inherit the Earth from our parents; we borrow it from our children.

The EDGE! Some of you have stated to freeze most things. I had been doing this for most of my life. Until my electric went out three different times in a two year period did I give up. Was it a great heartache to throw out the contents due to fact that electric was out for more than 7 days. How can someone try to salvage any of it? You could not believe the odor. My cans were loaded with things I had tried so very hard to buy on sale. Could someone tell me what kind of lesson I was to learn from this? Only if we had generator could things have been different, not to mention A/C and heat that was unbelievable. Keeping the windows open with neighbors who were fortunate to have generators was something to remember. I personally, don't know how they themselves slept with all the racket going on. Trying to buy generator seems to be at the bottom of my list for things we need.

Only can recall one advice I read states, 'don't worry about tomorrow, it has enough of its own to worry about'. My freezer is surely not full these days. One reason prices of things are getting out of control.

i disagree; i save plenty without dropping my standards. i dine on plenty of high-class lunches & dinners without compromising standards when i'm hungry fer them.
i don't mind fast food or stuff like that, though.

I guess it really depends on the person and their situation. I did only say "some people" and "might", and what they "need" to do really depends on their respective situations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by In the Kitchen

The EDGE! Some of you have stated to freeze most things. I had been doing this for most of my life. Until my electric went out three different times in a two year period did I give up. Was it a great heartache to throw out the contents due to fact that electric was out for more than 7 days. How can someone try to salvage any of it? You could not believe the odor. My cans were loaded with things I had tried so very hard to buy on sale. Could someone tell me what kind of lesson I was to learn from this? Only if we had generator could things have been different, not to mention A/C and heat that was unbelievable. Keeping the windows open with neighbors who were fortunate to have generators was something to remember. I personally, don't know how they themselves slept with all the racket going on. Trying to buy generator seems to be at the bottom of my list for things we need.

Only can recall one advice I read states, 'don't worry about tomorrow, it has enough of its own to worry about'. My freezer is surely not full these days. One reason prices of things are getting out of control.

The only thing that I freeze is bread, but that can just as well be refrigerated. It's pretty unusual for an electric outage where I live(d) in the UK and the Netherlands. I've never even heard of one lasting days. With proper planning though, it might be possible to do away with the freezer entirely. I manage, but I'm just a lone student. Since you say that your freezer is mostly empty, depending on the design, you should consider filling it with empty boxes, so when you open it the cold air doesn't rush out so easily (which costs money). Same goes for the refrigerator.

You might try to foster a relationship with your neighbours so that you could store some things in their fridge/freezers in the event of a long-term blackout. I don't know how feasible that is for you.

__________________
We don't inherit the Earth from our parents; we borrow it from our children.

LOL, I'm the culprit there but I have learnt to never go shopping when you are hungry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FutbolMom

Several Aldi stores have opened up in our area and they have some great deals. Milk is the biggest $2.69 a gallon which is almost a dollar saving.

We have a few Aldi stores in our major centers but our two main players are Woolworths [not related to the US name] and Coles who control 80% of the market, and don't they play on it.
Crikey, $2.69 a gallon for milk is cheap, the best we can buy it for is about US$6.50 a gallon